The guests for this week’s edition of the Hokie Hotline were women’s head basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson and men’s head basketball coach Ricky Stokes.

Coach Henrickson began by admitting that she was a little disappointed about not making it into the NCAA tournament, but said that she was excited about the opportunity to play in the women’s NIT and play in front of the home crowd in Cassell Coliseum. The women will play Georgia State at home on Thursday with the opportunity to play at home again over the weekend against the winner of the Maryland-Georgetown game (note from Will: Tech must out-draw Maryland in order to host the second-round game, so come out to the Cassell Thursday night!). The second game would be either Saturday or Sunday with an announcement expected tomorrow on the date for that game.

Georgia State plays in the Trans-American Athletic Conference (TAAC), and finished with a record of 24-6 on the season. They are a very athletic team and had the player of the year in the league this season. They have decent size, including several players in the 6’- 3" to 6’-4" range.

Tech and Georgia State had no common opponents this season, but Coach Henrickson said that she is familiar with some of the teams that they played. She has been on the phone today trying to get an early scouting report on the team, and she expects to have several game tapes tomorrow through overnight mail. She said that trading game tapes with an opponent is not done in basketball as it is in football, so she has had to go to some other sources to find tapes on Georgia State.

In the second round, Tech would be a little more prepared for the two opponents, since they are much more familiar with both of them. Coach Henrickson said that she has been trying to schedule Maryland for a while, and pointed out that they defeated both Virginia and Duke during the season this year. She also mentioned that Georgetown has an outstanding guard on their team.

Following those two games, the likely opponent would be Florida if Tech is able to win the first two games in the tournament. Coach Henrickson said that she was surprised that Florida did not make it into the NCAA tournament, and later admitted that they are a very talented team. She and Bill Roth discussed some of the possible reasons that Florida dropped to the NIT, including scheduling philosophy. They played a very difficult schedule, and were not able to post enough wins in the committee’s opinion.

In response to a caller’s question later in the show, Coach Henrickson gave the details for the NIT tickets. Tickets will be $8 for adults and $4 for children, and seating will be general admission. She said that the turn-around time was not sufficient, with the game just a few days away, to offer the season ticket holders their assigned seats.

As for Coach Henrickson’s picks for the NIT, she said that she thought that the three teams from the SEC (Arkansas, Alabama and Florida) had a good chance due to the strength of their conference. She also said that Wisconsin in the other half of the bracket had a good chance to win it all.

Coach Henrickson reiterated that the team was disappointed about not going to the tournament, but they realized late in the season that it would be difficult for them. Coach Henrickson said that it was very close, and that it was possible that even a single extra victory over a team like Duke, Virginia or Oregon could have made the difference.

She said that one of the things that hurt Tech in its chances to make the tournament was the Atlantic-10 conference. Overall, the league had a down year, and she said that Commissioner Linda Bruno mentioned to her that that had been one of the factors that went against Tech. The committee had looked at the conference as a whole, and questioned the viability of taking four teams from the conference into the NCAA tournament. This will not be as big a factor next year, since the Big East is a much better conference. Tech will also maintain its scheduling philosophy with out-of-conference opponents such as Virginia, Clemson, Old Dominion, Michigan State, and possibly others based on holiday tournament results.

Coach Henrickson’s pick in the NCAA tournament was Connecticut. She and Roth also discussed some of the differences between men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. In the women’s tournament, they agreed, there are far fewer "Cinderella" teams than on the men’s side. As a result, there are many more lopsided first round games.

Tere Williams came back to practice recently, and Coach Henrickson said that she looked good in some half-court shooting drills. She wasn’t as tentative as she had expected, but fatigue was a factor, since she hadn’t been able to fully extend her knee on the stationary bike while recovering from her injury.

On the recruiting front, Davina Simmons, one of Tech’s recruits for next season, has been cleared to begin running and shooting following her surgery two months ago. Coach Henrickson also said that she expects to sign two or three more players for next season, including one from the Richmond area in the next few weeks.

Coach Henrickson congratulated three players from Tech’s women’s basketball team on their awards from the Atlantic 10 conference. Tere Williams was named first team all-conference. Amy Wetzel was named the defensive player of the year in the Atlantic 10, and Chrystal Starling was named to both the third team all-conference team and the first team all-rookie team.

In response to one caller, Coach Henrickson said that the weakest parts of the team’s game at this point were its passing and its ball- handling under pressure. She said that the part of its game that the team had improved on the most throughout the season was its aggressiveness on offense.

Another caller asked about the results of the Florida game in the NCAA tournament several years ago, and the coach reflected back on the work that Mike Gentry had done to help the team improve its overall strength and conditioning. She said that the players had really put in a lot of effort, and said that it would be interesting, if they were able to face Florida again, to see what improvements were evident.

Coach Henrickson said that the players will get some time off after the conclusion of the NIT. They will then begin their off-season strength and conditioning program. She will meet with each of them individually to set up individual programs, and the team will work on passing skills and agility drills. During the summer, she will go on the Orange and Maroon tour around the area, participate in the July recruiting period and work in the on-campus camps.

Finally, Coach Henrickson said that she was excited about moving to the Big East next season, and pointed out the recruiting advantages and the chance to play quality opponents throughout the conference. She said that the Atlantic 10 was a good match for Virginia Tech and that they owed a lot to Frank Beamer and the football team for the chances that they helped provide.

On the men’s side, the season is obviously over, and Bill Roth asked Coach Stokes if he was disappointed about not getting an invitation to go to the NIT tournament. He said, essentially, that it was simply something that was out of his control. Much of the early discussion centered on the NIT and NCAA tournaments, but these will be reviewed briefly at the end of the notes.

The team reached one of its goals by finishing the season with a winning record. Bill Roth pointed out that Tech finished 2-5 against teams that went to the NCAA tournament, with the wins coming against Dayton and Lafayette. Coach Stokes said that the team’s four seniors did a great job this season, and that the team would not have accomplished what they did without their contributions. He briefly mentioned each of them and said that collectively he would always remember his first Virginia Tech team.

Brendan Dunlop worked very hard, despite losing his starting position. Russ Wheeler was one of the best defensive players on the team. Andre Ray was named to the all-defensive team in the Atlantic 10. Jermaine Kimbrough did not play as much throughout the season, but he came to practice and played hard. Either Roth or the coach also mentioned that all four would be graduating, including Ray, who will receive a graduate degree after previously receiving his undergraduate degree.

Bill Roth asked the coach what his biggest memory of this year would be. After pausing, he said that it would be that he enjoyed being around the players throughout the season. He said that it was much better to be able to work with players that he liked.

Coach Stokes said that in the short term, the players will take approximately two weeks off before going back to work for next season. Currently, the players are all on Spring Break, and once they return, they will have another week to rest from the season. They will have a team meeting on the Friday after the break, and will then begin conditioning and weight-lifting. In the off-season he will participate in the summer tours. In the shorter term, he will go to the convention at the Final Four and also participate in an upcoming contact period to try to meet with some of the prospects.

On the Dennis Mims situation, the coach said that nothing has changed regarding his status with the team. As of now, nothing has been decided. They will meet when he returns to campus following the break, and hopefully, there will be a resolution and everyone will move forward.

The coaches are currently trying to put together a schedule for next season. They don’t currently know the make-up of the conference schedule, but they are trying to fulfill the current contracts with other schools, while also trying to bring in a few more opponents to fill out the season schedule. Coach Stokes said that he expects the conference opponents to be finalized in the next month or so.

He said that the team will be young next season and that they will have to step up for the team to be successful, but that they are all shooters and he likes shooters. He said that stability and continuity in the coaching staff is important and that he hopes that Tech will be able to provide that for the near future. He also said that he spoke to Tommy Amaker of Seton Hall on the prospects for Tech next year in the Big East. Amaker said that they would do just fine.

As a conclusion to the show, Coach Stokes said that he was excited about joining the Big East and credited Paul Torgersen and Jim Weaver for enabling that to happen. He said that Tech has a great recruiting class for next season along with the rest of the conference. His final statement was, "Great things are ahead, and I look forward to the challenge."

As far as Atlantic 10 teams in the tournament, Coach Stokes said that he has picked Temple to advance far. He said that they have a very talented team and that a team has to have very good shooters in order to be able to prepare for them in a short amount of time. The projected match-up with Duke in the fourth round is an example of this, he said. Roth asked him if he thought the other two teams were disappointed with their low seedings. He said that as long as a team gets into the tournament, they aren’t usually concerned with their seeding.

Roth and Coach Stokes briefly discussed the west coast teams. Each said that the PAC-10 had a good year, and many in the east were not aware of that since they aren’t on television as often. They also mentioned Pepperdine as a team that Tech had seen earlier in the year that had made it into the tournament.

They also discussed St. John’s from the Big East -- a team in a little bit of turmoil that was nonetheless able to win the Big East tournament. Coach Stokes said that they would be a very tough team as a #2 seed in the West.

He also said that he hadn’t talked to anyone at Virginia after they had failed to make it into the tournament despite a winning conference record in the ACC -- a first for that conference in a while.

Coach Stokes mentioned having been to Quinton Nottingham’s son’s birthday party the other day, which I found interesting. The two were in different schools at different times, and yet they now have a connection in Virginia Tech basketball.

Coach Stokes said that he had no idea who the next coach would be for Georgia Tech. Based on the discussion and a comment made by Bill Roth, it sounded like something was up, but I couldn’t figure out anything specific.

This was the last Hokie Hotline of this academic year. The next Hokie Hotline will be next August prior to the Georgia Tech game.

-- Apex Hokie

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